It seemed like a hoax.

There where thousands of people crammed into Pioneer Courthouse Square and no Dave Chappelle anywhere. But there were definitely plenty of jackass fans, some traumatic underage boob flashing—seriously, I really didn’t need to see that—and a bunch of suburban kids with not much else to do on a lazy Tuesday night. So, yeah, Twitter failed and it was all a hoax…

…that is, until Dave Chappelle (and the world’s smallest amp) showed up.

(via The Portland Mercury)

This is a really cool story wrapped in a really cool story. If you hadn’t heard from the flurry of Twittering about it yesterday, Dave Chappelle made an impromptu appearance at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, OR – an appearance he had planned to make in front of a very small crowd and only told *five* people about. One of those people must have gotten on Twitter at some point, and by the time the concert was supposed to start, *four thousand people* had filled “Portland’s Living Room” waiting to see Dave. And show, he did. With a practice amp, a microphone, and an awesome attitude, he showed up to a crowd much larger than expected and did a damn good job keeping the crowd in good spirits despite barely being able to broadcast his voice to the first couple rows of people, let alone the entire square.

Here’s a clip of a great article written by a local news anchor, Joe Donlon, about his experience meeting Dave Chappelle while he was in town:

I introduced myself, and said, “So, it’s true. You ARE here. Everyone’s talking about it, you know.”  He was gracious and courteous – but clearly cautious when he heard I was a news anchor.  That’s why my next question probably wasn’t the best.  “What are you doing in town?”  He cocked an eyebrow – gave me that classic Dave Chappelle look – and said, “You’re a journalist?  I’m not sure I want to answer that.”  Fair enough.  So we moved on to other things – after I convinced him that I literally just happened to walk past.

I started with the rumor of this midnight show.  He seemed genuinely surprised, and said – “How did you hear about that?”  I told him about all the chatter we’d been hearing on Twitter and elsewhere – and he seemed almost stunned.

He then asked me about the local TV business.  We talked about the dwindling ad revenues, the layoffs, the cutbacks, and the bankruptcies – and he was truly intrigued about the money, and where it all went.   We talked about how people consume their news, the impact of the internet on that consumption, and our mutual admiration for Ted Koppel.  He also added his take on the difference between ‘news’ and ‘journalism’ and the changes he thought had killed ‘good journalism.’

via My Chappelle Show – KGW Anchors .

If you’re still curious, here’s a video of his performance:

Dave Chappelle via OregonLive.com

And, of course, some links to the flurry of articles about the event:

• Portland Mercury: Chappelle in Pioneer Square
• Dave Chappelle Surprise in Downtown Portland

Dave, if you’re reading this – you’ve got plenty of fans in Portland that would love to see you come back for a show whenever you like. =)